To be sure, the purchase originated in Clark's personal dismay that the cemetery where his brother Bill, an accident victim, was laid to rest in 2011 had fallen into terrible disrepair. Fallen branches, unmown grass, tipped headstones made for a sorry sight.

Taking responsibility for the cemetery's maintenance wasn't easy. Even learning who owned Pine Grove was like unraveling a mystery. Clark enlisted the help of a real estate agency to help him trace its history and current status. He learned that it was founded in 1856 by Mae Rose and, 99 years later, a member of the Rose family asked a neighbor to tend the cemetery. The neighbor, then his daughter and her family, took care of it for decades. The neighbor's daughter, Linda Copertino, continued caring for the property until 2009, when an attorney told her the cemetery was not her family's responsibility and she needed a real estate license to sell burial plots. It ended up in the hands of Wayne Bank, the custodian. Another good-hearted citizen, Allen Ford, spent time trying to maintain the cemetery during that period, while Milford attorney David Chuff worked on the transfer for free.

It took Clark two years to straighten out the ownership, officially acquire the cemetery, and set up funds for maintenance and operations. Clark, Copertino, and the late Bill Clark's two adult children will donate to the fund to provide perpetual care.

Copertino spent decades helping to keep Pine Grove Cemetery respectable and attractive, and Dave Clark went to a lot of trouble to honor his brother's remains. Their exertions aren't unique. Here in Stroudsburg, volunteers from the Monroe County Historical Association and the Rotary Club of the Stroudsburgs came together several years ago to clean up and maintain the small, walled Hollingshead Cemetery off Dreher Avenue. Local Boy Scout troops have helped maintain other, private cemeteries. Across communities, across the state and the nation, many private or even public cemeteries fall into neglect. The lucky ones are rescued from oblivion.

Such efforts go well beyond keeping the crabgrass down. In showing respect for the dead, volunteers like Clark are maintaining permanent records of individuals' births and deaths, their family members' names, sometimes how they died. Gravestones often track entire families for generations and indicate military veterans.

Next time you pass a cemetery, tip your hat to its caretakers. They are preserving pieces of local history for future generations.